Senior HR Business Partner (Product & Engineering)

About Motorway

Motorway is the UK’s fastest-growing used car marketplace – our award winning, online-only platform connects private car sellers with over 7,500 verified dealers nationwide, who compete to offer the best price. Founded in 2017, our technology makes the process refreshingly easy, earning us an 'Excellent' Trustpilot rating with over 70,000 reviews. We're not just building a platform; we're changing how people sell cars.

Backed by leading investors like Index Ventures and ICONIQ Growth, and following a successful $190 million funding round, we're on a mission to transform the used car market.

About The Team

👋 Hi, I'm Savannah, Director of People at Motorway. I'm on the hunt for a highly strategic and commercially savvy Senior HR Business Partner to join my team and work closely with our Product & Engineering and Central Operations teams.

This is a crucial role where you'll drive business growth through smart people initiatives, make sure our people have a great experience, and build a high-performing culture that aligns with our business goals. You'll be a trusted advisor to senior leaders, turning complex business needs into impactful people strategies, and working with our People Operations, Workplace, and Talent teams to deliver joined-up solutions.

You'll be part of a collaborative team, reporting directly to me, and working alongside another Senior People Partner, a People Operations & Advisory team, and our Workplace and talent Teams. We’re a collaborative and ambitious bunch who care deeply about creating meaningful impact through people.

About The Role

As a Senior People Partner at Motorway, you’ll act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across Product, Engineering, and Operations. You’ll connect business objectives to people initiatives, using insight, experience, and data to shape high-impact strategies.

This is not your average people partner role. We're looking for someone who's been deep in the machinery of complex organisations and understand how to navigate scale, ambiguity and competing priorities. If you're ready to step into a more autonomous, fast-paced environment to truly own the people strategy for critical parts of the business.

Strategic Business Partnering

• Act as a strategic advisor to senior leadership, with a solid grasp of how engineering and product teams are structured and work, as well as an understanding of central operations (like legal, finance, and people teams).
• Translate business strategies into actionable people plans, driving organisational effectiveness, talent optimisation, and cultural alignment.

Commercial Acumen & Impact:

• Develop and implement people strategies that directly support commercial goals, including revenue growth, profitability, and long-term success.
• Provide strategic insights on organisational design, talent, people experience and performance management to optimise business outcomes.
• Measure and demonstrate the ROI of people initiatives, aligning people strategies with key business metrics.

Holistic People Experience Leadership:

• Partner with People Operations, Workplace, and Talent teams to ensure a smooth and integrated people experience throughout the employee journey.
• Lead and/or support cross-functional initiatives to boost employee engagement, well-being, and development, fostering a positive and inclusive work environment.

Talent Strategy & Development:

• Drive talent strategy development, including succession planning, leadership development, and talent pipeline management.
• Identify and develop high-potential talent, ensuring a strong pipeline of future leaders.
• Design and drive development programmes to enhance leadership capabilities and drive organisational effectiveness.

Organisational Design & Change Leadership:

• Lead complex organisational design initiatives, ensuring alignment with Motorway’s strategy and optimising team structures for efficiency and effectiveness.
• Drive large-scale change management initiatives, providing strategic guidance and ensuring smooth transitions.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, influencing and driving alignment across the organisation.

Data-Driven Insights & Reporting:

• Use advanced analytics and data-driven insights to inform people strategies and drive decision-making.
• Develop and present comprehensive reports on key HR metrics, providing strategic recommendations to senior leadership.

About You

• You’ve been a People Partner or HRBP and have operated at senior level with accountability for driving real change.
• You know how to influence without authority, navigate ambiguity, and challenge thoughtfully.
• You’ve delivered end-to-end people programmes in environments with competing demands and complex stakeholders.
• You’re data-fluent, comfortable pulling insights from people data and using it to influence outcomes.
• You’ve partnered with COEs before, but also know how to build when the infrastructure doesn’t exist.
• You bring critical thinking, strong judgement, and a bias for action.
• You care deeply about inclusion, impact, and building healthy, high-performance cultures.

You could be a great fit if

• You're passionate about creating a positive and high-performing work environment.
• You're a proactive problem-solver with a knack for getting things done.
• You thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
• You're a strong communicator with the ability to build relationships at all levels.
• You're comfortable using data to drive decisions and measure impact.

Our interview process

• Qualifying Screen - 30 minutes
• Hiring Manager Interview - 45 minutes
• Final Interview (on-site depending on team) - 1 hour

You can expect to hear back from us within 48h of each interview stage. You'll have the opportunity to speak with a talent partner throughout the interview process should you have any questions or need any type of accommodations.